By Developing strong realtors takes time, but it pays off in the end
I was recently asked some questions about the state of agent education in Southern California. The writer wanted to know what I thought about the way in which agents are prepared today for their work as realtors—what is working and what is not. This is a tough one to answer, because it really depends on the brokerage they’re with. Every company (and even indivdiual offices) has developed their own program for training, and some are more successful than others.
For the most part, I think that collectively we’re not doing as good a job as we can in LA. In the last six years, we’ve seen an influx of new agents flooding the market, literally thousands of individuals who quickly got licensed in hopes of cashing in on the real estate boom, and now that things are slowing, these same agents are in trouble. I am not sure of the exact numbers, but I am confident in saying that LA county has seen more individuals getting into real estate that I can ever remember (and I’ve been in this business for nearly three decades).
Our local board has approximately 16,000 agents as members. From what I have been told, approximately 3,000 come and go each year. That being the case, over a four–year period, approximately 75 percent of the agent population has four years or less experience. These are the teachers of the general real estate population. This is a problem. The knowledge that has been traditionally passed from experienced agent to new recruit in a slow process over the years has been accelerated. As a result, it’s become watered down, and the fundamentals that create lasting success for realtors (success that allows you to withstand market conditions like we’re facing today) have been lost.
Brokerages need to think about slowing down the process of turnover by taking on fewer agents and focusing more on strengthening the skills of the ones they currently have.
When an office is mandating as many as eight new agents a month, how do these individuals possibly receive the attention and guidance they need? It’s setting people up for failure, and when the agents realize this, they become disillusioned and leave. In the end, this hurts the managers, the owners and the brokerage because it directly affects their bottom line (higher turnover means higher training, administrative and recruitment costs) and their reputation (people will figure out that the company can’t deliver on it’s promises).
Everyone (agents, managers, clients, and companies) are better off when the company’s first priority is making existing agents better rather than simply looking to add more. One of my colleagues, Roger Hance, is a pioneer in this way of thinking.
In the spring of 1978, Roger launched R.R. Gable Inc., a full service real estate company in Los Angeles that was one of the first to develop agent support programs for farming leads and real estate teams. From the outset, he focused on helping his people to become better and more efficient in their work, which enabled his office to reach the highest average income per agent in the residential brokerage business in 1981. He expanded R.R. Gable to eventually include 10 offices in LA and Ventura counties with more than 500 agents.
Strong agents mean strong offices. It’s as simple as that. And developing strong agents means taking a more time-consuming, hands-on approach. Management that focuses on the basics, implements strong (not just surface level) training programs and encourages real mentorship among their agents will minimize turnover, increase their average income per agent and develop their people into competent, successful realtors who’ll be in the business for years to come.
